Robert de La Salle

Robert de La Salle (21 November 1643-19 March 1687) was an explorer of the Kingdom of France and a member of the Knights Templar who attempted to find the Great Temple in an expedition to North America.

Biography
Rene-Robert Cavalier was from a noble family in Rouen, France, and in the 1660s he headed to Canada. He was on a mission from the Knights Templar, who had hired him to lead an expedition of followers to North America to find the Grand Temple in present-day New York. La Salle set up a number of forts in Lower Canada such as Fort Frontenac and Fort Conti, and at Fort Crevecoeur, he had to put down a mutiny of some disloyal French troops who found out his true goal of his expedition.

In 1682, he entered Louisiana and explored the modern-day states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. In 1683 he headed to France for supplies, and a member of the Hashshashin order approached his 36 men, convincing them that he was in reality a Templar who planned to harness the power of an Apple of Eden and kill all of his men when the job was done. In 1684 he returned and tried to find the route to the Gulf of Mexico to establish a base. In 1687 his men mutinied.

Death
Jean Duhaut and Jean L'Archeveque were responsible for the Hashshashin plot. Near present-day Huntsville, Texas, La Salle talked to L'Archeveque, and Duhaut signaled one of the Assassins order, who snuck up behind La Salle and stabbed him in the back of the head with a hidden blade. La Salle's death was avenged with Duhaut and L'Archeveque's deaths, with the first one in retaliation; the second one was killed as well in a river ambush by Indians.